Australian conservatives are attempting to ramp up the culture wars

It is worth considering how we respond

Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne

In the wake of their federal election loss in May, Australian conservatives clearly believe that stirring up a series of culture wars is their best path back to power. Peter Dutton has focused attention on changing the school curriculum, a tactic backed up by Senator Hollie Hughes, who claimed that the Coalition Government lost because “Marxist” teachers have been filling students’ heads with “left-wing rubbish”.

The approach is part of a trend within Australian conservatism—it happens in progressive groups too, but let's focus on the conservatives today—in which they borrow from culture wars overseas, importing battles successfully waged in the US. Dutton’s focus on the school curriculum, for example, repeats a campaign prominent in the United States, where Florida Governor Ron De Santis has made the school curriculum a key part of his agenda, passing controversial ‘don’t say gay’ legislation for schools, and banning critical race theory from the curric…